Here is the sequence of events in my communications w/the owner of TickZoom.

1) After posting a question about auto-trading here on ET I received positive comments about TickZoom from a "user" of TickZoom (the owner later confessed to being that "user").

2) So, I fell for the bait and went to the TickZoom website which stated that new "members" would only be accepted for the next 24 hours. Of course, I earnestly filled out a questionnaire stating why I would be a good candidate to become a member.

3) Upon submission of the questionnaire I received an e-mail stating that I may be conditionally accepted as a member upon completion of a phone interview.

4) The following day I received a phone call from the owner of TickZoom. We had a very detailed conversation about auto-trading, the shortcomings of NinjaTrader, and the benefits of TickZoom. Two hours into the conversation I was informed that I would have 14 days to review TickZoom and the user forums and subsequently I would be required to pay a one-time fee of $1500 and annual fees of $500. I balked at this fee w/o having a chance to even see what the software does and told the owner that I would get back to him. Meanwhile, the owner stated that he would confer w/the other members on my status.

5) Unexpectedly, I received a call later the same day from the owner stating that, after he had conferred with the other members, they thought it best that I not be accepted in the current release but that I may be accepted at a later date.

After a few minutes conversation, the chance to test the software was extended to me again. I thought this about-face to be strange so I graciously declined and stated that I thought it would be best for me to wait to be accepted at a later date..

6) Via Google I was able to gain access to the coveted forum. I saw only 2 posters there, both complaining about the fee structure and the unusual dealings w/the owner of TickZoom. While I was at the forum my access was blocked somehow.

7) FWIW, my read on TickZoom is that this may be the greatest product ever but I'll never know since it's being kept super top secret. Also, while the owner said many of the right things about auto-trading I would never work w/this product unless it was licensed or sold to a firm ready to deal w/end-users on a professional level. The whole experience was very time consuming and while the product could be very good, it was the scammiest pitch I've heard since the water softener salesman came to our house.

Especially weird since it appears to be open source. How often do you see an open source product compete directly with a proprietary product ? Not often (at least not officially). Stick with NT/Zen. If this TZ company wants to compete, give me a demo. No demo, no competition. It's that simple.

What a damn joke. Make a mediocre auto trading platform, spam it as open source, have devs beta test and submit bug fixes for you, then spit in everyone's face and change the licensing. You're not missing much from the few times I poked around it btw.

This is indeed funny. I remember the "owner" (Wayne?) of TZ posting in a few threads here, basically trying to obtain requirements. From his statements, it became very obvious from the beginning that he didn't know whether he was coming or going. And now this (backflip from Open Source to not OS)!? LOL!

maxpi,
Yes, I have both Ninja and OpenQuant licenses but I'm only using Ninja. Do you use OQ and do you use tick-bars or ticks in your auto-trading?

I stopped trying to develop in OQ about a year ago after I got tired of the firm's non-responsiveness when the platform kept crashing on me.

At this juncture I've come to the conclusion that Ninja was good enough to develop an automated tick-based strategy but its poor resource utilization rules it out for trading a portfolio of strategies/instruments.

Do you think I could actually auto-trade a portfolio of tick-based strategies w/OpenQuant? By portfolio, I mean that I'd be happy to get to 20-30 strategies running concurrently on a platform. I'm really in a bind here b/c I'm ready to scale up the number of strategies traded. Any advice that points to a solution would be sincerely appreciated.

What a fucking joke. If he needs these gimmicks to sell his "product" then he is pretty far out.

More...

The thing is I don't think its a "gimmick", if you followed the original thread as mentioned the guy didn't know if he was coming or going. Wouldn't surprise me if it goes back to open source next week, then back to non OS the week after. He seemed like a decent software engineer who has no business being a project lead or running a business.